Red-tape phobia is costing farmers

"We're very good at adapting to new situations, because we have to adapt to survive commercially." These are not the words of a farmer looking to diversify but those of Phil Lyth, who knows about the difficulty of trying to stay profitable.

Phil has been a farm conservation adviser with FWAG (Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group) Yorkshire since 1986. He says: "We are here to help farmers in such a way that the way they farm looks after the countryside and thus helps the environment."

"The way we deliver that service depends upon where the goalposts are at the time. The way things are going, it looks likely there will be a change in the coming months."

Agricultural environment schemes have been around since Phil took up his post 24 years ago. They have included a hedgerow incentive scheme, an environmentally-sensitive areas scheme, countryside stewardship and the current range of schemes called Environmental Stewardship. There are different levels of commitment, starting at entry level. There's also organic entry level, upland entry level and higher level.

Farmers receive one main subsidy – the Single Farm Payment. There is

extra money available by applying to join the various environmental schemes, but many are not interested either, because the time it takes to apply, the paperwork involved, or what the farmers see as restrictions on what they can or cannot do.

Just over 67 per cent of farmland is under some form of agri-environment agreement.

"There are still a number of farmers who are missing out on the money that has been modulated out of their Single Farm Payment. I was talking with a farmer recently who could have been getting 8,000 a year for the past five years and simply never quite got around to it.

"A lot of the work we are doing is contract work, helping farmers fill in their forms for things like the Upland Entry Level. These are 50-page documents and many farmers just can't get their heads around them. My personal view is that they have made the upland scheme and Entry Level scheme too complicated for many farmers to apply themselves. It's also too rigid in many farmers' minds, which is why more haven't taken up on it. You have to apply and then say what you are going to do for the next five years. That's quite a commitment."

The monies available are 30/hectare for those in the lowlands and up to 62/hectare for those in the uplands and "severely disadvantaged areas".

But farmers are not generally paperwork people and many are willing to forego the possibility of money just so they don't have to deal with what they see as red tape.

"I think nearly all farmers, in their hearts, are conservationists.

"They want to look after where they live, but they are not good with paperwork. They are practical people. They are not good at absorbing regulations.

"Almost every farmer I have seen in 24 years has an interest in conservation in some way.

"I enjoy communicating with farmers and that's how I feel able to help them with working through the forms they need to fill in."

FWAG Yorkshire used to be funded to a large degree by government grants but today is self-supporting. Their income comes from the contract work which Phil and the rest of his team undertakes as well as from sponsorship.

"I would like to think that the work we have done since FWAG started in 1969 means that many farmers know who we are and what we do.

"I have always taken the welly boots approach to farming, getting out on to farms and helping farmers achieve sustainability in a responsible way.

"There was a time when farming, driven by government incentives, went through a phase when land tended to be exploited. That's not the case as much now."

Phil also believes that there has been a sea-change in the way farmers have taken on board conservation matters, probably no more so than in their attitude towards field margins, where they now leave two-metre strips without cropping around the edges of their fields.

"When two-metre strips were first mooted, everybody seemed up in arms over it. There was a lot of moaning and groaning.

"But now nearly everyone accepts the benefits they have had on such as partridges and barn owls.

"It was a painful decision at the time but it has proven to be a very good thing."

FWAG Yorkshire is based at Thirsk Livestock Market and Agricultural Centre, tel 01845 527850.

CW 17/7/10